Document Type : Article
Authors
1 Ph.D. in International law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 Prof., Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The "security exception" Clause, which is referred to as a safety valve, was provided for the first time in Article 21 of "GATT (1947)" in order to protect states from their "Essential security interests" and contains a phrase (which it [contracting party] considers necessary) that gave a Very Considerable Discretion to the member states. In the following years, the desire of countries to attract foreign capital made them often omit its inclusion in investment agreements; But the concern of the governments regarding the Essential interests, especially in recent years, has led to the re-insertion of the above phrase in the Clause of the security exception. Now we have to ask how the evolution of the discretion of the governments has been and whether they have sought to expand the discretion in the meaning of Article 21 of the GATT or are they thinking beyond it? By examining the procedures of the States and the international jurisprudence, it seems that not only the governments sought to obtain " Very Considerable discretion", but some were not even satisfied with that and by depriving the competence of investigating authority of the security exception, they sought to obtain " "full discretion" in matters related to their Essential security interests.
Keywords
- International Investment Law
- Security Exception Clause
- State Discretion
- Investment Treaties
- Essential Security Interests.
Main Subjects
English
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